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“The palace of the procurator in Trier, or the promise and predicament of Roman archaeology”

“Those whom the gods hate …” they make publish another archaeologist’s excava-tions. In this volume, H.-P. Kuhnen bravely runs the gauntlet of editing and publishing, with commentary, the manuscripts of W. Reusch on the half-century-old, large-scale and long-term excavations beneath the imperial baths (Kaiserthermen) of Trier. This, by itself, would be a great service to the academic community, but Kuhnen adds his own coher-ent interpretation of the excavation results. More specifically, he identifies the urban palace found by Reusch, deemed by the original excavator to be some rich private domus, as noth -ing short of the residence of the procurator of the provinces of Belgica, Germania Inferior andGermania Superior. This attractive interpretation, while not quite as secure as implied by the book’s title (there is indeed no epigraphic evidence to support it), will surely interest cohorts of Roman archaeologists, especially if news of it can be disseminated in English- language publications.1 Kuhnen used his incomparable knowledge of Trier and provincial Roman archaeology more generally to make sense of Reusch’s dry presentation, in the process putting forward more than a few thought-provoking theses.

The palace of the procurator in Trier, or the promise and predicament of Roman archaeology. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283100625_The_palace_of_the_procurator_in_Trier_or_the_promise_and_predicament_of_Roman_archaeology [accessed Aug 9, 2017].